Portable electronic devices such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, audio players and multimedia players, often have a scrolling functionality for navigating information such as menus and content lists.
The way in which a user controls a portable electronic device via its User Interface (UI) is often the key for the device's success, both from the point of view of usability and aesthetic appeal.
The UI of most portable electronic devices consists of a Graphical UI (GUI), that displays information to the user, and a physical input mechanism, that allows the user to control the device. GUIs typically display large lists of contents or options as a list that the user can scroll. The challenge is to create an input mechanism that allows the user to scroll this information effectively, while fitting in a small physical space.
There are currently at least three types of input mechanisms that are used to scroll large content lists. These types are independent buttons, scroll wheels, and single axis control.
Independent buttons may e.g. be down and up buttons to scroll up and down in a list, respectively. Independent buttons may be physical, moving buttons or touch- or proximity-sensing areas of the device's exterior. However, a drawback with independent buttons is that it requires a lot of button presses in order to navigate large lists of information. Moreover, independent buttons does not allow for fine control such as scrolling speed.
Scroll wheels allow the user to control the scroll direction, such as clockwise or counter clockwise movement, and scroll speed, such as rotation speed. Scroll wheels may be physical, rotating wheels, or touch- or proximity-sensing circular areas. However, scroll wheels typically occupy a large area compared to the size of modern portable electronic devices.
Single-axis controls may e.g. be a touch- or proximity-sensing strip, wherein a user may control the scrolling by pressing or stroking different parts of the strip. However, commonly known single-axis controls typically require the user to repeatedly lift the finger and repeat the same movement over and over, in order to scroll long lists of information. Moreover, it is also difficult to control the speed of a scroll using commonly known single-axis controls.
Hence, an improved method, device, user interface, computer program product would be advantageous.